Thursday, August 17, 2006

Smells fishy

and that's not just because they are located in Georgetown near the canal.

Read this article in the WaPo about the Legal Services Corporation, an entity created by Congress "as a nonprofit corporation run with federal money to provide legal help in civil matters for Americans who cannot afford lawyers." In other words, they serve underserved communities.

But this articles makes it sound like the corporate headquarters is just self-serving with seemingly unnecessary perks for the board members (like extra meal allowances, limo rides and meetings in hotel conference spaces rather than the headquarters) and administrative decisions that place the comfort and convenience of the board over channeling funds to the neighborhood programs which provide legal services to the needy. They've been subject to Congressional scrutiny, but it sounds like they need a little more accountability.

Of course, the administration of Legal Services Corp. justifies all of their decisions, but I'm not buying. When you work for a community services organization, the focus is supposed to be providing those services. When you volunteer on the board of such an organization, shouldn't you also have the spirit of volunteerism and maybe suck it up a bit and deal with less fancy food and conference space which is available for free, not a fee? I don't think it's appropriate for the board members to be taking limos to meetings at the expense of services to the needy, even if the cost is the same as taking the train. It just looks like an irresponsible, gross excess and is insensitive to the needs of the community which the organization is supposed to be serving. Even worse to be taking those limos while at the same time crying poverty and having to turn away more than 50% of those who seek help because of a lack of resources.